Page 55 of Transfiguration
“Why did you save me?”
“I didn’t. Couldn’t. No one listened to me, especially back then. I don’t know why they didn’t condemn you too, or Sam.” He sighed and stopped whisking. It didn’t look like chocolate cake, which was good because Con thought it would make him cry to see a slice of that again, when he could clearly recall Luca devouring it with near orgasmic joy.
“Where is Sam?” Would Luca come back?
“He took Luca to ground.” Seiran pointed to the arboretum. “We would have brought them to the vampire cemetery, but there wasn’t time. We’ve spelled and locked it against the kids. I don’t recommend you go in there, just in case.”
In case of what, Sam and Luca both woke as revenants? Sam went to ground one week a year, and those days were always hard for Con and Luca. The two of them worked, but they’d both get antsy waiting for Sam’s return. It differed from when he went out of town. Calling them was easy as long as they were above ground. The silence and stillness of Sam’s time recharging always strained their resolve. What would Con do without either of them?
“Will he come back?” Con whispered, his voice cracking. “Luca?”
“I don’t know. Gabe said, maybe? I’m sorry. I wish I could give you clearer answers. I sense him, if that helps. The way I sense most vampires that are close. A lingering presence that feels sort of ghostlike?”
“Did you feel that when Luca came around before?” Could Seiran sense the change? Con tried not to let his hopes rise.
“Yes. He’s always felt like a vampire to me.”
Con nodded, swallowing hard and blinking back tears. “Does Hart know?”
“I don’t know. Communications are down. Someone hacked into the Fellowship systems. The entire network is offline. There have been a bunch of phone outages and we put up the wards, which always messes with internet access.”
Radio silence was a bitch. Con had more than his share of retrieval projects that started out fine, and lost communication somewhere along the way, which always added danger to a job.
“Kelly said they assigned you to find Matthew’s body.” Seiran said carefully.
Okay, maybe that was the reason for the baking. “Yes.”
“Can you?” Seiran wondered.
“Probably. I’m good at following a trail no one else can see.” He thought finding Bella would be his first goal, and the monster who had hurt Luca. Con liked the idea of flailing his skin from his bones with a fine rush of sand.
“Do you know why Hart wants it?”
That was a good question, wasn’t it? “No. I thought it was just so he could release him properly. They mentioned they were worried a demon had it and releasing the soul would let the demon have full control.”
“Page could have released the soul without the body. I’ve seen a demon, and not much is more powerful. I don’t think the soul helps keep them contained. The one I met was a witch who had summoned one, thinking it would protect her family. It killed them all, and everyone in a fifty-mile radius.”
Con blinked at him, processing. “How did you control it?”
“I didn’t. We sent it back to hell, or the demon dimension, whatever you want to call it. Witch and all.”
“Fuck.”
“The Fellowship has more information, other options I didn’t know about containing or removing a demon. But it’s all vague. Conjecture maybe?” Seiran poured the batter into a couple of round pans. It smelled like vanilla and was cream-colored. He tapped the pans and popped them into the oven. Con could see him gnawing at his lower lip and wondered what he was stewing on. “I wonder what Matthew might know? If we could question him? Find out who’s behind all this?”
“Didn’t you already do that when you first found the golem?”
“We tried,” Seiran said. “He was too broken. Couldn’t even show us what he looked like. And we got one word out of ten from him? Maybe we need the body to talk to him?”
Con thought about that. Would Matthew know where all this started? Where it led? Where to find Bella? And maybe who Con needed to kill?
“Unless you have a better idea where to look?” Seiran asked. “I thought perhaps the torture broke him before I knew who he was. Now it’s more than that? Bigger? Was he part of these rituals to pull something else? Like a demon? Do you know anything I don’t?”
Con didn’t, not really, and that pissed him off. He’d just gotten home after rescuing a kid and failing to find a book. One lover murdered, and his other love lost to his revenant. He was about as clueless as he could ever be. Were the book and the symbol tied at all? What about Bella? What was her role? Kaine said Con had to break some array, and he needed Bella to do it? He never should have left her. He only had one possibility right that minute. “Bella’s backpack is gone.”
“Burned you mean?”
“No. Not the one I bought for her. The one I made for her. It’s like the ones your kids have. Runes stitched into the lining, spelled to protect from magic. They also have tracking runes imbedded.”